Motion to approve the September minutes, as posted on the Google drive (Shanks / Fouse). Passed.

Order of items below reflects the order of discussion; not necessarily as they appeared on the published agenda.

Old Business:

Bylaws Update. Adam Miller independently verified Bruce’s count of the ballots received before the meeting. Of the 232 received, there were 221 “yes” votes, 6 “no”, and 5 abstentions. As 232 is nearly 30 percent of our membership (approximately 775 at the time of the balloting) the requirement for ten percent participation was satisfied, so the ayes have it and the Bylaws have been officially changed to allow electronic voting and voting by dual members.

New Business:

Online Voting Methods. James reported that he had found two electronic voting systems online, one free and one that would cost about $700 (or about a dollar per member). He said the Elections Committee would investigate those and report back. He further said he was planning a test of the free system soon and would be sending a mock ballot to the Board members as a test process.

December Race Date for Goblins Go and VIR Offer. The Goblins Go scheduled for October 13-14 was canceled after Hurricane Michael knocked out power to the track, and most of Danville, and the Dan river flooded the track, as well as parts of Route 58. In a rare move, VIR has not only offered us the weekend of December 8-9 to replace our canceled race, but they have offered extremely favorable financial terms as well. VIR has agreed to charge us only a flat fee of $100 per car and offered a no-penalty back-out date of November 30th if not enough cars have registered by then or if the weather seems to be too unfavorable. In addition, they will lower the track hotel rates to just $99 per night to encourage people to stay there. This is an offer we cannot refuse. Sam had already approached the National Office folks at the Runoffs in Sonoma last week and they have agreed that we can just transfer the sanction numbers from the canceled race to the new one, since we are already too late to apply for another sanction. But with reduced daylight, we will have to trim some time, probably by reducing or even removing the ECR. Since the SARRC races are for 2019 points, we can keep those without having to get permission from SEDIV. There was considerable discussion about adding a Time Trial event on the Patriot course as well, similar to what we have planned for March, and Justin Deffenbaugh will head up a group looking into that as an add-on. Motion to accept VIR’s offer of a race date of December 8-9 as explained and to hold a modified version of the Goblins Go on that date (Fouse / Mehler). Passed. Sam will work up an expense pro forma to determine what we should charge, but he said he expects an entry fee of just $225 – $250 per car for the weekend, which is a tremendous bargain. Sam also said he would ask Anna to rework the schedule upon her return and come up with a name for the event. The favorite at this time seems to be “Goblins Go – Ho Ho Ho”.

2019 Schedule: August and September Dates and Goblins Go. Sam announced that Kerrigan Smith had told him during negotiations for the December make-up date that the test day weekend we had requested for next August 3rd and 4th was already included in the contract for next year, which we should be receiving from Kevin Massey-Shaw very soon. Sam also said that Bob Crawford of WDC Region had approached him at the Runoffs to discuss making the Goblins Go part of their Labor Day weekend at Summit Point next year. Instead of us paying them $25 per car as we do for the May SARRC/MARRS, they would pay us that amount. This might be a good thing for both Regions, since Bob expected they would have to cancel their usual race in early October due to the Runoffs. The Board informally agreed to this proposal, awaiting details from Mr. Crawford, who would have to run the idea by his Board of Directors as well.

2019 Runoffs News from Sonoma. Sam said he spoke with Charlie Leonard, (driver GTL #14), who is in charge of logistics for the 2019 Runoffs at VIR. Charlie confirmed that there will be no race cars paddocked in the South Paddock, so there is the possibility that this area can be used for workers. Sam suggested to Charlie that he come to VIR during the Spring Sprints next year so that he can see firsthand the difficulties he will face in getting crowds and race cars in and out of the track. Upon learning that SCCA plans to hire local people to be shuttle drivers and to park cars, Sam suggested that they consider offering those positions to NC Region members first. They took that under advisement. Given that tech will be in a large tent in front of the VIR tech shed, it is clear that National will be renting our scales and they have already inquired as to how many radios we might be able to rent them. Everything discussed was purely preliminary, however, and subject to change.

Off-season Purchases of Equipment. Ben said he wanted to upgrade our radio supply before the Runoffs, and ideally before the Spring Sprints. He is hoping to get 30 more radios before then. Heather Powers indicated that money is very tight until after it starts to flow in when registration opens for the Spring Sprints, so he would have to hold off until the very last minute. Heather Clark asked what we could do if some of the old units “bricked” before then. Since a new unit was in the neighborhood of $300, both Sam and Heather Powers said that malfunctioning units would have to be replaced in small batches. Heather Clark added that perhaps we should consider obtaining a small generator to use to recharge the radios should we experience a power outage like the one that the recent hurricane caused, but this was a long-term concern, she said.

New Conference Phone. Bruce circulated a couple of pictures of a new conference phone he had found online. This one had two built-in microphones and four wireless mikes that could be positioned around the room. It retailed for $295 plus tax and shipping. After some discussion about how this would improve our meetings, several members suggested we buy it. Motion to purchase this new conference phone with the wireless microphones (Shanks / Fouse). Passed.

SCCA 75th Anniversary Canopies. James circulated a picture of a red canopy with a white SCCA 75th Anniversary logo on it for a 10X10 track shelter. He said he had promised Rick Myers of the National Office that he would do that. Rick had sent it in his usual e-mail to Region Membership Chairs and had said that the National Office had purchased some unit for use at the Solo Nationals, and that they were very well-made. The company which produced them had offered to reduce the price to just over $1000 from their original $1500 if 30 Regions were to order them. Since we already have an excellent one for our Solo program and a very nice (and bigger) 10X20 one for the Hospitality tent, the Board was not interested.

Additional Persons to Attend the SCCA National Convention. Blair Deffenbaugh announced that SCCA National had asked him to attend the National Convention in Las Vegas, January 17 -19, in order to do a presentation on using social media to publicize our events and contact prospective participants. They would pay his convention fees but he wanted to be added to the list of Region participants from last month who could apply for reimbursement of travel and other expenses. Buddy asked if Blair would be willing to give his presentation at NCR Chapter meetings, and Blair agreed to do so after the Convention. Motion to add Blair to the list of people who could apply for reimbursement (Shanks / R. Deffenbaugh). Passed by affirmation.

Financial Report.

Treasurer Heather Powers reported that $62K in refunds had been disbursed to entrants in the canceled Goblins Go. Sam was particularly proud that we had been able to do that within 24 hours of the cancellation. Ms. Powers further reported that the Region had a total of $145K in the bank at this time, including Solo. She agreed with Sam that we could anticipate additional expenses of $8K for the annual dinner and close to $40K in worker credits whether or not the rescheduled Goblins Go occurred, so it would be really nice if it were to happen and add to our bottom line.

Chapter and Committee Reports: As of this writing, there were no Chapter or Committee reports for October 2018 posted on the Google drive.